Pizza in the Italian Quarter

 Lunch today just had to be right on top of the hill over looking Washington Square Park and Saint Peter & Paul’s church in the old Italian quarter.

Simply amazing building inside and out.

So quiet to just sit and reflect.

Tony’s is the place to be on a Sunday for late lunch

We scored the front table, that Aussie hat working it’s magic again. Barbera, one of our faves when it comes to Italian wines.

The foot crossing are all in the italian colours making it feel super festive.

Puffy crust that you can taste the smoke for the wood oven simply done with fig preserve, prosciutto, parmigiano and balsamic glaze.

Our waitress name was Theresa which touch a little nerve for me today, her gentle ways and kindness just reminded me so much of my beautiful sister 💔. We chatted as I do and she gave me the biggest cuddle and whispered in my ear that my Therese was with us all today.

Last Night in San Francisco

Well our time in San Francisco is coming to an end. We have done so many things and meet so many wonderful people. 

Tonight it was a underground comedy club to be ticked off the list and we weren't disappointed. Grungie and a real small space seating only 49 people under a kabab shop just around the corner for our hotel. It was fun to be in the space and interesting to hear American comic talking about their lives.

Along a dark moody hallway from street level then dropping under ground in a old service lift with metal shutters

Into a fun bar area for pre show drinks and mixing with the locals

As the cable cars went past up at ground level you could here and get the vibrations … a bit spooky. 

We had a blast.

 

Wes Maye from Mississippi

A very very small bit of the Wesley Maye story.

As written by me after only chatting to this incredible man yesterday for an hour in-front of his building. 

Not all that he told me I will post about because something are just too special and keeping them in your heart is where they should and will stay. 

Wes, like me loves a chat and collecting people to talk too.

I just can't do justice in this post to this amazing mans life thus far, but to share with you just a brief few lines that he openly shared with me yesterday.

After chatting for some time about the weather, leaves on the pavement ect  … I asked him what was his heritage as I like to do, he paused, smiled and said proudly to me he was born in Mississippi. Wow was my response and I chatted about me learning how to spell Mississippi way back in my childhood.

Wes told me he was born into a very large family because back in his day that was how families survived, the bigger the family the more opportunities and food that could be bought into the household.

Listening to him talking about his time growing up was a glimpse into someone’s world that I never thought I would be lucky enough to ever get to hear about first hand. He told me how times back then were tough and rough, very tough and very rough and left a lot unsaid as he knew I should instinctually understand. Somethings just don't need to be talked about to know about! 

He move to San Francisco in 1964 after he had done national service and here he made his life as a press photographer, involved in the movie industry and a cable car driver and now a building supervisor. One thing that he shared with me was that one day long ago on that cable car some people were wondering where he was from and they were thinking because of his accent the he was from New York. When he told them he was from Mississippi they scoffed and said that he was a smart ass. I looked at him confused by his comment and he said that back then if you were from the deep south and talked with a more northern accent you were labeled as trying to be above your station in life. 

Ouch I said and he smiled saying this was why I told you this story because I knew I could!

Wes thank you for letting me into your world and may we chat again someday.

Mississippi & Mrs Moore

Sandy and Wes talked as if they had know each other for a lifetime, it was such a wonderfull morning.

Wes proudly wearing the 🦘 pin I gave him yesterday and telling every person he saw about us two Aussies.

As we arrived to the cafe the wait staff greeted us all as if we were old friends, the place had a great vibe with such a peaceful  neighbour feel. T’was a cool morning getting to the cafe and some people walking in front of us quoted from Mark Twain 

“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”. 

In side the cafe with warm drinks in hand Sandy and Wes talked al kinds of darkroom stuff, shutter speeds, length of lenses, aperture ect, both enjoying the chat from a bygone photographical era.

Then this guy got in on the conversation, he was originally from Mumbai via Sydney for 10 years now living in San francisco with friends living in Tamworth! He referred to Tamworth as being in woop woop

 ( and when you here woop woop with and Indian accent it brings a smile to any face ) blows your mind sometime how small this world is.

It was like a scene from an American sitcom like Friends, Frazer or even Cheers.

All mixed together into one little San Francisco Cafe.

How luck we were to be there 💚💜

Mississippi

Now there is a word that I never thought I would be needing to write down in a sentence let alone remembering how to spell it correctly. So thank you to my 1st or 2nd grade teachers that persisted with me and my interesting spelling attempts some 50 + years ago. If only then I could have predicted the future and told them to chill out as someday we will have computers with spell check. I would have been sent back into the corner where I did spend a little bit of time for making up such stories! I could have saved them all that trouble. I remember learning to spell words by singing and as all that know me know my singing is not too crash hot either!
On my morning walk up the hills I come across my new friend Wes as he was sweeping the side walk in front of his building. I stoped to chat about the leaves and we got to talking about where we both came from and guess where Wes is from … hmmmmm Mississippi ✅ go to the top of the class.

We chatted for a good hour or so, which was why my step count was low today. What a truly amazing man and what a full life he has had. Turns out on top of all the other things he has done in his life he is also a photographer and has an exhibition of some raptor photos at the local corner cafe and would I like to see them. I really wanted Sandy to meet him as she was taking her own pictures of eagles in the Napa area so a plan was hatched to meet tomorrow.

Not a leaf in sight out the front of Wes’s place.

 Tomorrow we will meet on the corner of 

And 

At “Another CAFE”

Nobody Loves You!

We can’t be in San Francisco and not go to the theatre that would be just down right criminal … wouldn’t it Susan 💚.

The Beacon Grand is just around the corner from the Toni Rembe Theatre at 415 Geary Street.

Was enjoy my afternoon walk and discovered it at 6.45 pm with tonights performance at 7.30pm. So a quick dash into the ticket office and I got two seats last minuet for 15 USD each a HUGE saving of 70 USD ($111.30) each. Back around the corner to Sandy and quick as a flash, our glad rags on and off to the theatre we go.

Win Win the Aussie tourists now get a free dinner with 🍷 and a  show … Woo Hoo.

N ♥️ Y is the name of tonight's show 

Music Comedy first premiering in 2012. It was modern, fun and the singing was truly amazing, we both absolutely loved it. Taking the Mickey of a current dating TV show. 

Opening scean a girl on a sofa looking into the audience as if we were the TV while the TV show was played out behind her.

The Fire Escapes in San Francisco

It’s been cool to see so many great building on my walkies around this very hilly city. Beautifully painted and with amazing mouldings. Seeing the fire escapes reminds me of many an American sitcoms and movies i have enjoyed over the years and to see them in real has been a visual treat.

Chloe, I found your name sakes Art Gallery here in San Fran!!

Its so you, so super chic 💚 love Uncle Pete

Barbie’s San Fran Pad

 

The Hills of San Fran

We all know about the famous steep hills of San Francisco, but until I was here and had the opportunity to walk up and down them its only then that I discovered that these hills are a serious work out on my morning walks.

My step count per hour may currently be down … but my legs are convinced I've walked a 1000 miles!

Cable cars to the rescue. 

Lunch at Sears in San Fran

We bumped into the PCH bouncer again when we were having lunch at Sears across the cable car track from The Beacon Grand … Sandy looking good with tall men in hats.

Sears opened in 1938 serving American-Italian food to the booming San Fran tourist market bought about by the likes of our and other hotels being built around Union Square in the late 1920’s. This is 😎 dudes favourite restaurant for lunch … so good picking Sandy.

Our mission is to hunt down little restaurants that we feel are quintessentially San Francisco style eating and mingling spots. We love meeting people and already are having a ball chatting with so many and getting to know their stories of this amazing city.

We sat at the bar on red padded swivel seat and had the crab croquettes in a rich italian inspired tomato sauce and they were moorish. 

Maybe the best pic we get this time of The Golden Gate Bridge as the days are a bit cool and grey but we still have a few more days yet.

Used to be able to spin for a free meal, oh the good old days, wished that was still a go for the Aussie tourist!

By the time we left the place had cleared after lunch ready for the afternoon crowds.

One of many great pictures on the walls showing some great characters of a bygone era

PCH

Not Port Cygnet House! but “Pacific Cocktail Haven” and what a 😎 haven it was. Stumbled across this late night cocktail bar on our way back to our hotel after having an American-Italian dinner.

All those lights but only a few turned on, how are us old visually challenged people supposed to see the cocktail list let alone the prices! But once we clocked the young with phone lights on we didn’t feel quite so old after-all!

This was the bouncer … one cool dude with his sheriff looking security badge!

Sandy loves tall men with hats … thank goodness!

A Matadora Whisky for me, ingredients are a rye whisky, cognac + licor 43, suze, guava, macadamia nut, mascarpone and strawberry. Now thats a mouth full of words so let’s hope it works all together … it so worked and it was soooooo good. Just a drop of this and that, the balance was perfect and the creamy nutty flavour worked with the whisky. So to make it was apparently simple, apart from the whisky and cognac all the other ingredients are blended and frozen together, solid removed through some sort of magic and the clear liquid added to the final whisky drink. Very Heston-esk, a tad wanky but so inner-city chic.

A Star Is Born

Once we get settled it’s time to explore the hotel … and bar 🤫. Here is where we get to learn some history behind this grand hotel. Below is the blurb from the hotels printed post cards. But I'm sure you can tell I didn't write it as its got some real big words that I needed to google. 😂 

The scene is 1928 San Francisco. A roaring stock market,

an aft-disobeyed prohibition. The global spotlight from two Worlds Fair’s combined with a boom in modern inventions like the radio, television, cars and phones helped to fuel The City’s progress. A new star is born: and they call it the Francis Drake Hotel.

The newspaper of the time called it ‘26 stories of luxury’, beginning a long history of added mysterious floor to the 

21-story hotel. Aside from indoor golf and in room water innovative touches were everywhere, from newfangled radios in every guest room to one of the countries first Servidor systems.

Opening reviews extolled the “glittering new monument to the progress, hospitality and underlying beauty of San Francisco”. The symbol of the cities progressive mindset was designed to reimagine what a hotel could be at a time of five cent coffees and three dollar rooms, construction cost an imaginable 5 million.

Almost a century after opening, this grande dame of San Francisco hotels is closer than ever to the original intent behind it’s creation: a centre of gravity for The City’s history-makers. 

The Beacon Grand shines once again as a place where locals and visitors converge to form a social circle at Union Square.

OK guys thanks for the history lesson, now back to me.

You know how much I love a $ comparison from the past to the present so let’s x it all by 100 USD.

So a 5c coffee then - today is 5.00 😂 (which it is not … well not that we have found anyway)

A $3.00 room - today $300.00 … which again depends on where … or where in the hotel you are staying! So to build today The Beacon Grand that would be 500 million ($795 mill Aus) … that was a lot of faith in 1928 just after the depression that if you build they will come … but they did build and she is still here today which we are so lucky to now be part of that history.

I just can’t stop looking up at the ceilings … 

The Beacon Grand in San Francisco

Will be where we lay or heads for the next 5 nights … and it sure is grand! Checking in at reception was a delight the staff welcoming us as if we were royalty. The whole place is just so stunning with incredibly tall and detailed ceilings. The french antique mirrors and amazing flowers add the old world charm 

I love.

The hotel has been set for spring with huge paper flowers from the reception up to the bar. Ohh I do love a bar, and now with 

6 x 25 USD ($238.10) complementary gift vouches because of a few little issues with our first 2 rooms not having the walk-in showers we had booked. But in true Beacon Grand style they were so sorry to put us under such hardship!! so please please accept some drinks on us … OK … we will.

🥃 🥂 🍷 

 The breakfast room … check out the ceiling.

Going up please!

Nice room … with views of the city from the 15th floor.

3rd time lucky.